25

Ten things about this moment:

1. It is the last official day in the city to rake your leaves to the curb.

2. It is going to rain tonight and all day tomorrow, so raking is out of the question.

3. I would rather not rake today.

4. I keep having dreams about birds. I do not remember these dreams, but I do recall images: moments when I am holding birds, or about to reach out and take a bird, their delicate bodies...

5. I miss the physicality of writing, just the commitment to the physical act in any media.

6. I also miss the time of writing time. Not the serenity of it--that is a romantic idea, but the immersion of one's self in time while writing.

7. I miss the conversations of content, of ideas.

8. I am looking at a postcard that promises "unimaginable convenience." This phrase appears underneath a photograph of a woman playing golf at what will be a "second-home community." I have no idea what either of these phrases mean.

9. I would like nothing better now than to go on a long bike ride in the sun, something like I did in the Ludington dunes, like riding in the desert, in the soltude of sun and sand and sadness, the loneliness of that sun-blanched ladscape.

10. It is my destiny to rake these leaves.